


The Memories We Mended

by mildewonrice



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Anxiety, Depression, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Nightmares, Nostalgia, Pre Good End, Selectively Mute Sunny (OMORI), Some angst, includes a good amount of my headcanoning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:36:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29738850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mildewonrice/pseuds/mildewonrice
Summary: At the end of a four year stalemate, the kids of Faraway Town find themselves in a haze of lost memories, some warm, some long forgotten, some repressed. The past and present thread together, and it will take all the courage they have to untangle the web.
Relationships: Aubrey & Basil & Hero & Kel & Mari & Sunny (OMORI)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 75





	1. The Fall

_“You don’t want to look down. Or do you? If your fate was certain, would you take the plunge?”_

Sunny was hungry.

He had woken from an unpleasant dream he couldn’t recall, unable to deny the sensation any longer. The acid in his stomach flipped and turned, screaming out with nowhere to settle. His insides felt as though they were loosely strung together, like he could come undone at any moment. As he stood, he gripped desperately to the nightstand for purchase, and in a state of disorientation, found himself back in the pitch black hall, the bedroom door slammed violently behind him.

The door is locked. The door is locked. The door is-

At some ungodly hour past midnight, in a bleak, empty house, a feeble teenager gripped by emaciation stared down at a wavering, amorphous staircase. From behind him, a sickly red glow briefly held him in place, kept him in some suffocating cocoon of unreality, but it wouldn’t last long. The claws of hunger propelled him forward, and there was nowhere to go but down.

Blood pooled in Sunny’s feet, his arms stretched out in front of him as his uneven start down the stairs left him stumbling. Tremors worked their way down pallid limbs as he found himself unsteady, looking down...and down...and down…

* * *

_A shadowy form stared down at Sunny. A disappointed look. An angry scowl. From around him, the hall began to distort, the stimuli stabbing through him with invisible nails, technicolor gone wrong. He wanted to scream, but screaming was not allowed. The lumbering adult reached down and carefully lifted a broken toy. Minutes passed, a ragged voice pressured him to stand, to face what he had done. An impatient foot thudded once, then twice. Soon, a huff signaled his seething guardian was at a boiling point. With a start, the young child’s father yanked him to his feet._

* * *

Sunny rocked back and forth on his heels for a second, a singular stair crying out beneath him, but soon was still.

He had regained his balance.

Before him, the voices stirred, the drop peered back with an open eye. Memories long discarded, long sealed off suddenly whispered in his ear. He shook his head, and continued his long descent. Inky hands flowed against his trail, some dark current driving them from the cracking walls on all sides.

Bile rose in the teen’s throat, a dull ache seized him, and soon the only sensation that remained was nausea worming its way to the surface in a slow march. 

* * *

‘ _Sick. I feel sick.’_

_Words had finally formed in the muddled mind of the small child. He half clutched to the door frame, and half turned away, perched in the shadows as the voices boomed. Disgruntled arguing. Always about him. About Sunny._

_“He just...needs some more time.”_

_“He’s had six years of time.”_

_“Sunny is just...a little different. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong.”_

* * *

Something was wrong. The voices in his mind had hushed. Around him, the hands had vanished.

This was endless, a death march that would last forever, and yet it felt as though the journey was reaching some sort of climax.

Something was coming.

Something was here.

Below the dark haired teen lay a silver knife. He bent down, his muscles screaming in protest, to retrieve it. He could see a vacant gaze reflected in the blade as he rose.

Silence. Not the good kind, like sitting in the living room alone on a warm spring day. The bad kind, like he was about to get caught, like the ephemeral eye of a hurricane. Some unquantifiable emotion threatened to break the surface of numbness, twisting in a pit within him, shrieking soundlessly.

* * *

_“What was it again today? What could that boy possibly have to be angry over when everyone does everything for him?”_

_“He...was upset. He was sad when you said you would leave him if he didn’t start listening.”_

_“Are you blaming me?”_

_“No! That’s just what happened.”_

_“Sad? You call throwing things across the room just being a little ‘sad’ ? Mari was there, he could have hurt her. He almost hurt you.”_

_“I know. I know it’s bad. I really do.”_

_A dark haired child listened to their scathing tones. The iridescent living room judged his hidden, cowering frame. He tore his gaze away, and stared down at his feet._

_‘They know. They know I’m bad. They really do.’_

* * *

This is bad. It really is.

A searing panic strangled Sunny’s throat. It was too far. Too many steps. Too many thoughts.

There was something here, now. Something dark.

Something smiling, towering above him.

A discordant messenger, here to block the way, to scream at him to return to the solace of his room. He needed someone, anyone. He couldn’t be alone, not like this. He fought the urge to collapse, quivering as he gripped his tiny weapon, slashing out wildly at the lumbering monster. Trying to ignore its crooked, mangled grin. He tore his gaze away from the beady eyes which drew him in, and aimed for the long limb which sought to grab him. Frigid fingers rested on his shoulder, and his attacks did nothing.

Delirium soaked his skull. Falling. Falling... As he launched himself at the beast, gravity wrenched him downwards. As he fell, the smile on the monster’s face widened. Hurtling to the ground, he saw a future vision of himself, bloody and bruised by collision with the hardwood floor. But… it wasn’t a future vision, he realized. It was a past one, and the figure on the ground wasn’t him…

* * *

_“He’s only going to keep falling further and further behind.”_

_“I know.”_

_A young child felt a light tap on his shoulder. Turning to the source of the cold hand, he was gently grabbed by the wrist, promptly led away by someone trying her very best to be quiet. Sunny was glad she was here, always ready to rescue him, though he never knew why. Forgetting the situation, the younger sibling opened his mouth to say her name._

_“M-”_

_“Shh!” She loosened the grip on his arm and turned around, crouching to be on his level, and holding a finger to her lips. Her face was barely visible through long, jet black hair, and Sunny could only lift his own stubby hand in response, copying her pose. She smiled at him, warm and welcoming, and he blinked back. They continued on, and found themselves at the foot of a staircase._

_Up. Up. This wasn’t like him. He never felt upheaved by the stairs, he was used to ascending and descending the planks without trouble. From his room, to the hall, the living room, and back. Easy. But, this time, something was different. Something was pulling him backwards, something was making the creak of the boards send his heart into a pounding frenzy._

_‘Falling. Falling further behind. Falling…’ a lump rose in his throat, no matter how nice Mari’s presence was, no matter how tightly she clung to his hand, the voice wouldn’t stop echoing. The phantom limbs wouldn’t stop trying to pull him towards Earth..._

_SUNNY has acquired FEAR OF HEIGHTS._

* * *

_Well, this is going nowhere._

The silhouette of a shut-in cowered on the endless stairs, entangled in past snapshots while watching the present flicker by as if it were simply a projection. The low drone of sneering, inner voices faded out as his mind pulled up a blank sheet, a mental curtain over his senses. For a flash, thoughts emerged that weren’t Sunny, but were lined with Omori’s distinct brand of detached cruelty. Someone needed to handle this threat, and it certainly wasn’t going to be the trembling hikikomori. Maybe if he could put an end to this in the next _century,_ they could finally get some damn nourishment. 

With robotic precision, the unkempt figure slashed out at nothing but air. The hellish beast was refusing to move anymore at this point. It blocked the way stoically, staring forward at something distant, leering at no one in particular. 

Omori’s grip on this form was too weak to extend beyond reaction to immediate physical threats, and as quick as his presence came, it was lost again in the sea of Sunny’s rapidly returning thoughts and consciousness. Unable to pull the wool over his eyes any longer, he covered his ears as he staggered, the ringing sending him over the edge. Walking the tightrope that was the stair’s edge, a pain struck him all over as he looked back at what had sent him into that numb state. It waited still, hummed silently to itself, jutting out from the dark, grinning, watching, waiting. 

_Waiting for someone to jump._

Adrenaline seared through Sunny’s veins in another bout. His inner narration became fuzzy around the edges, devolving into muffled screams to run, to lash out again with all he had, or to…

_Jump._

No. Stop. He let himself collapse on the singular, creaking stair, kneeling with hands pressed tightly to his ears. They were worse, so much worse as the day drew near. Weeks ago, the static that lined his mind in the brief period he spent awake had begun to evolve, adapt to his suppression. The idea, the fact that was _moving, leaving_ implanting itself in his psyche like a parasite. Feeding on whatever was left, amplifying the hallucinations tenfold. He wished those words had never been uttered. Maybe things would be easier, simpler, if he would just…

_“Sunny...”_

A stern call shot through him. No, he could tell it wasn’t real. Couldn’t be real, and yet, an inner guardian spoke to him. The sound was urgent, making its way forward even through the incessant tinnitus, or the sound of Sunny’s blade slicing through void as he fought desperately against the hands reaching for him.

* * *

_“Sunny? Hey, it’s okay! Here-”_

_A tiny boy sat hidden beneath a duvet, retreating into a self-imposed shell as someone sat beside him on the edge of the bed. The young girl reached forward, eyes shining, trying to project all the energy she could muster this late into the night, handing him the book that had been occupying his mind lately, one on cataloguing beetles._

_Maybe the energy wasn’t simply a projection, Mari got up with haste and went to the other side of their shared room, fumbling around in the dark for a second before coming back with a flashlight. Though Sunny was still shaking, he let his hands loose from his cocoon, grasping the worn book cover. Mari sat on the edge of his bed again with an abrupt thud, flicking the flashlight’s switch and lighting up the now opened pages with a harsh, white beam._

_As Mari turned the beacon so the glow wasn’t directly in Sunny’s eyes, he looked down again to try and read the printed words, but all that emerged in his mind were images of the stairs, the feeling of losing himself, of hurtling, crashing to the ground. Something so disastrous had never occurred, but there the visions were anyway, not relenting to any semblance of logic or reason._

_“Hey, y’know if-” Mari cleared her throat as she paused for a second. Sunny could tell she was tired by the way her words slurred together, a speech impediment she sought desperately to hide. “Hey, you know if you need something downstairs this late again, I can get it for you!” It was funny, Mari had been trying to urge Sunny to be quiet earlier, and now her voice was beginning to rise in her enthusiasm, losing sight of the time and place._

_Sunny simply nodded slightly in his cloak, to which his sister beamed and shifted where she sat, the light wavering slightly on the pages he found it difficult to focus on right now. Sunny didn’t understand why she wanted to help him, why she didn’t just leave him and go to sleep if she was tired. But still, he felt warm in the blanket shell, and more at peace knowing she was there beside him._

_“I was…” he started, his high pitched voice cracking slightly from strain of disuse, “...Falling.”_

_Mari’s chocolate brown eyes were wide, she analyzed his expression for a second before smiling again, looking relaxed and assured, “In t’dark,” she collected herself, trying to distinguish each word clearly as she continued, “I know it can seem that way, but I wouldn’t let you fall, no matter what!”_

_Sunny trembled slightly, remembering the feeling he had tried to shove down from before, from the creaking stairs, his parent’s scorn. He looked down as conflicting emotions gripped him, a rare collection of tears gathering under wide eyes. He felt someone grab his hand._

* * *

_“Take a deep breath...don’t be afraid. It’s not as scary as you think.”_

Alone in a cold, creaking house, Sunny felt invisible claws dig into his skin. The only voice that could be heard outside the torment of his consciousness was that same urgent call from before. Soft and stern, shaking him gently awake in its weight.

Sunny saw a tear fall to the floor as he wiped his eyes, the looming shadow at the staircase’s now visible base retreating into itself. Dissolving around the edges, looking through the dark haired child’s frame and beyond.

SUNNY took a deep breath, and remembered how to CALM DOWN.

* * *

Sunny stared down a finite set of old hardwood stairs.

He felt the warmth of the noon sun streaming through the window on his back.

In front of him, somewhere beyond here, an incessant knocking was filling the house with its determination. Whoever it was, they were going and going, and they really weren’t going to stop until Sunny answered the door.

With a carefully calculated breath, Sunny descended, the groans of the planks under his weight giving out briefly, and then ceasing their song. 

_Three Days Left._

Sunny let the fact overtake him, the memories emerge from the surface, a white static appearing for a second.

He inhaled again, standing in place at the ground floor, gaze fixed on the door directly in front.

It’s okay. Calm down.

Feeling the afternoon summer sun even through the walls of his cool home, he let a brief flash of hope resurface, he listened to the voice of someone familiar break the mold.

Another breath.

And then he answered them. 


	2. His Roulette / Beyond the Sky

“Helllooooo…Helllloooooooooooo? Sunny? Are you there?”

_Wow. I’m actually doin’ this, huh?_

For real, Kel didn’t think he was capable of making such a bold move today. The morning had whizzed by in a frenzy, a lightbulb appearing in his head and firmly implanting itself before he had time to reconsider. Once it was in his brain, trying to detach it was nigh impossible. He barreled his way forward, scaling the invisible fortification separating his home from his quiet neighbors’. As quickly as his nerves placed him in their driveway, he was soon in front of that familiar, beige door, knocking once...then twice...then…

Okay, maybe he had overdone it a little bit. But what if whoever was home hadn’t heard him the first time? What if they were showering or watching the T.V. super loud upstairs? You never know, really. And it was no bother, he’d wait as long as they were cool with it, or at least before they yelled at him to get the heck off their property. 

Wait...Sunny wouldn’t do that, right? The thought sent a shiver down his spine. The kid didn’t talk much...but, that had been the last time Kel had seen him. How different was he now? Images of seasons past flickered in his mind’s eye as he stared ahead at the wooden barricade. He held a hand to his head briefly as he rocked on his heels, how long had it been? How many Christmases without a single image of Sunny leaving the house? Without a single notion of how he might be doing?

He gulped, honestly not sure how to proceed from here. He opted to ask a question. Inside he had heard faint shuffling, but no move to answer his call. It was him, wasn’t it? 

He’s gotta be listening, right?

“Do you remember me? It’s your old friend, Kel!”

He had wanted to sound as energetic as possible, maybe if his tone appeared saccharine enough the other boy might actually greet him. Instead, it wavered slightly, carried away in the midday breeze. For a little while there was silence, and Kel couldn’t hear much beyond the birdsongs nearby and the swaying of the tree leaves. He clasped his hands behind his back to keep from placing another impulsive tap, starting to feel sweat bead on his forehead. 

After a minute or so, his mouth began to run again, “So, I...uh…” his voice cracked a little, and he cleared his throat harshly before continuing, “I noticed the ‘FOR SALE’ sign in front of your house…”

Kel hated the silence, how he was the only thing breaking it. Like the feeling he got whenever he said something dumb, or made a bad joke, except about a hundred times worse.

“And I...err…heard from my mom that you were moving away soon,” the disheveled stranger finally finished his statement. He still didn’t even know for sure if someone was there, if anyone was listening. This was stupid, he was stupid.

He kicked his shoe lightly into the welcome mat, appearing slightly bashful, “I was wondering...if you wanted to hang out one more time before you go...or whatever…for old time’s sake y’know?” Kel lost himself remiscinsing for a second, remembering an old picnic by the lake in a flash, before he tumbled right back down to the present. By this point, he had realized how badly this could go. Sunny might not even be home, he couldn’t even tell for sure if someone was standing there or if it was just his overactive imagination at work. The brown haired boy scratched the back of his head and let out a sigh.

He pulled at the hem of his orange tank top, looking off into the slowly shifting blue sky above. Kel wasn’t able to tell how much time was passing now in agonizing stillness. Seconds? Minutes? He was about to try and fill the space again when the door in front of him was abruptly unlocked with a loud _click,_ black hair appearing in a blur in the entryway. 

In a whirlwind, the person he had come here for was standing right in front of him, meeting his startled gaze with their own look of quiet resolve. 

* * *

_With the backdrop of an orange evening sky, a woman appeared in the door’s entrance, looking down at the young boy that stood firmly on the welcome mat, blinking as she processed his arrival. The child flashed a wide grin, hands tucked firmly in the pockets of his shorts._

_“Hiya! I was wonderin’ if Sunny’s around? I haven’t seen anyone all day. Is he home right now?” Already getting ahead of himself, the boy peered past the weary mother, looking for signs of life, but couldn’t pinpoint anyone else in the house._

_“Ah! Hello, Kel!” Sunny’s mom adjusted quickly, stepping backward to make room for their neighbor to step inside, “Sunny is home right now, yes. Though...” she paused for a second, a finger on her chin and looking at something far off, Kel kept an innocent smile plastered to his face. All he had heard was that Sunny was home. What would they do? Maybe play video games? Watch cartoons? Nah, it was pretty late to be watching shows, the best ones were only on in the mornings._

_“He didn’t have the best day today, I’m not sure if he’d want to play.”_

_Kel was already in the living room, about to enter the hall to the staircase. Sunny was likely in his bedroom, and the long haired boy knew he’d probably stay in that stuffy space until somebody dragged him out. With each step, he considered a game they’d like to play, then discarded the idea. It had to be just right, Kel needed to turn this day around for himself, too._

_The woman in the doorway turned to the brazen guest, surprised by how quickly he had entered the house and completely disregarded what she had been saying. She shook her head, and a tired smile upturned her face, “Well, maybe hearing a friend’s voice would help. Mari’s at cram school, so...” she closed the door with a quiet creak, speaking mostly to herself, “he’s in his room...oh!” She called to Kel again who was now in the hall, “I’m making dinner soon, would you like some? It’s steak and vegetables!”_

_Kel had heard that. He whipped to face the opposite way, the heels of his shoes scraping on the hardwood floor, “Yeah! That sounds great!” The child bounded forward to the stairs at a high speed, before spinning around again as he imagined a mock Hero scolding that couldn’t actually happen today because his big brother was in cram school._

_“Thanks!” He immediately added to his statement, feeling immense pride at remembering the polite phrase, so much so that it came out as an inelegant squawk. The young boy really didn’t mind, though. He felt himself weightless on the stairs, carried by an insurmountable will-power. Today had been boring, and now it wouldn’t be. Everything was going to be made right._

_He skid on the brown planks in front of the kids’ room, ready to get the party started. Before he could fill the quiet, early fall air with a cacophony of knocking, the door gently opened in greeting, a familiar pale face blinking back at him._

_“Kel.”_

* * *

“Woah, you actually came out!”

The brown haired visitor had reeled back in shock, the words escaping him before he could stop them. Wow, that was Sunny! Really in front of him! This was real! It took him a moment to adjust, above him the loud cries of birds could be heard flocking overhead. Kel wiped some sweat from his forehead and studied his friend for the first time in four years.

He looked...essentially the exact same. He was slightly taller, less doe-eyed, facial structure shifted slightly from age. Other than that, he had the exact same haircut somehow… _He didn’t leave the house at all, right? Who’s been cuttin’ his hair?_ Kel shook his head, not wanting to be distracted by pointless questions. Overall, it was the exact same kid...except, _shockingly_ skinny. Was he eating enough? Kel opened his mouth to voice the concern, but thankfully a modicum of self-reflection spoke out against him, and he shut his yap again without uttering a word. 

Kel turned around for a second to process, rubbing his head with one hand sheepishly as a nervous grin took hold, realizing that must have been kind of rude, and also not wanting to scare the boy off with his forwardness. This was such a rare encounter that he didn’t have the faintest idea of where to go from here.

The tall teenager turned back to the shut-in, stuttering for a few moments before he decided that speaking the truth was the only decent follow-up.

“Okay, I’m gonna be honest with you, Sunny. I really didn’t expect you to come out today, so I don’t really have a game plan here.”

Kel watched as his neighbor blinked rapidly against the glare, holding a ghostly hand to his forehead. He lowered it back down to his side ploddingly, as if each movement was a grueling task. Through it all, dark eyes wouldn’t cease their analysis of the visitor, stuck somewhere between a daydream and a real absorption of the present. 

_He still looks like he isn’t all here, that hasn’t changed either._

“Hey!” An image of a long past memory flickered before Kel’s eyes. After stuffing the cringy image of him accidentally desecrating brand-new merchandise with his rain soaked poncho into the recesses of his mind, he recalled the gang sitting on the floor, entranced by fantastical adventures in their favorite comics. Sunny would have to still like that, there’s no way he couldn’t!

“I know,” he started, a relaxed smile untensing the muscles of his face as he recalled cozy afternoons long past, “let’s go to Hobbeez! It’s the hobby shop up in Faraway Plaza.” To that Sunny blinked while meeting his old friend’s gaze, finally seeming as though tethered back down to earth. 

“You remember the way, right? We used to go there all the time when we were kids...” Kel pushed on, hoping this would be a fun enough plan that the dark haired teen wouldn’t change his mind. Through all of this, he half expected Sunny to turn back around and retreat into the cool indoors, to slam the door in the neighbor’s face and never emerge again. This really was insane luck, and Kel knew it. He took a deep breath and tried to maintain a leisurely appearance. 

_This is all...perfectly normal...four years isn’t that long anyway, right?_

Kel could feel his composure leaving him as the uncertainty loomed. There was only one way to handle it, soldier on through all the shock and doubt, of course. The taller boy shook his head in a sharp dismissal of his concerns, turning around and marching dramatically onward through the sunbaked grass, motioning to the hikikomori that it was time for some misadventure. 

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

* * *

_Kel thought he was more perceptive than people gave him credit for._

_For years he’d been laughed off, scolded, reprimanded. A stern command to ‘knock it off!’ here, to ‘have a bit more tact!’ there._

_The child was never much one for tact, his head made sure of that. It ran faster than he did, he liked to say rather ineloquently. Everyone would just give him a weird look, or sigh in exasperation._

_Dismissal._

_Always dismissal._

_He wished he had the strength to get over it, but his mind was an ever spinning wheel on some lame game show somewhere. He never knew if today he’d devolve into a fit of tears, yell in a humiliating tantrum, or simply sit quietly with a dumb grin. His brain played an eternal game of roulette, and he never seemed to be winning. it was all so incomprehensible._

_This was all to say, he could feel the unspoken tension at the silent dinner table in his bones, and it was sending his head into a reel. An aggravating stillness haunted the family, guiding them all in some uneasy tango. The agitated guest stabbed through the tough steak before him, watching the tissue peel apart, trying to focus on the satisfying meal instead. Underneath the table a leg shook, an outlet to keep his anger in stasis._

_What had Sunny done? The visitor had been hanging out with him for about an hour, not really doing anything, just watching the kid sit and gaze listlessly out his bedroom window while Kel rambled on. Normally, his friend at least liked to busy himself with something while he listened to his stories. But today he was...really sad looking. And now, the anxiety at the table...what the hell was going on?_

_Kel didn’t have much experience talking to Sunny’s folks. The kid’s parents worked a lot, they had fancy jobs, or something. His mom was nice, he’d never talked to his dad. All he could gauge from their dynamic was that it was...strange. The three of them in one room put him on edge._

_“So, Kel,” Sunny’s father spoke languidly, his voice a low drone that started and ended with a halt, chewing his own steak before continuing his thought, “How’s school going?”_

_Kel knew he couldn’t disguise his disconcertment well, so he busied himself with stuffing his face as he responded rather crassly, “Ah, doin’ okay. Gettin’ good grades this term, I think.” The family didn’t seem too offput by his impoliteness, while staring into his food he heard Sunny’s mother give a light hum in response._

_Sunny himself, well, he hadn’t taken his eyes off his meal the entire time. Twisting his fork around and around, stealing only small bites. He really wasn’t hungry, huh?_

_After a few seconds, the father replied, “that’s great. Maybe Sunny could learn a thing or two from you, then.” There was a nonchalant detachment to his response, offhanded, but his son had started trembling slightly in the chair across from him, or was Kel just imagining it?_

_Honestly, the resemblance between them was uncanny sometimes. They were both space cadets. It almost felt as though Kel would have to wave right in their faces to actually summon their full attention. He wouldn’t do that here, though. Even if a voice nagged him to perform some spontaneous act, to slice through the tension with some kind of self crafted knife, he felt it best to shove it down. The child cut through the steak in front of him, trying to distract himself from his racing thoughts._

_“The recital is coming up. Are you going to go, Kel?” An overly sweet voice broke the silence. Kel lifted his head, and looked off into the void for a second as he considered it. He had completely forgotten about that, wow. He knew that’s what had been making Mari and Sunny so busy lately. That hadn’t happened yet?_

_“Ah yeah! I sure will!” He responded, his voice sounding squeakier than he had intended, trying to summon all the enthusiasm he could. That kind of music wasn’t really his thing, but if everyone was going, why wouldn’t he?_

_“Hm. Mari’s been practicing diligently for it. I hear that piano all the time in the house, it’s going to be good for sure.” The older man at the table spoke up again, he met the gaze of no one, speaking mostly to himself._

_This seemed to set off the child across from him even more. Kel could hear the scrape of metal against porcelain as he clumsily fidgeted with his fork. Sunny hadn’t looked up, not even once._

_It was starting to remind Kel of things; memories he didn’t like._

_It was...dismissive._

_“What about Sunny?” He spat out the inquiry, thinking maybe he could fix things. But, honestly, maybe he shouldn’t have come over at all. He wasn’t causing this, was he? His head buzzed with the possibility, he tried to stuff it down, but it kept popping back up. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could play whack-a-mole with his emotions. The boy let his fork fall to the plate with a clink._

_“Ah, right,” the father started musing aloud again, there was always this weird pause between his words. It was annoying, Kel just wanted him to get on with it._

_“I haven’t heard him practicing much, really.”_

_A loud clatter snapped Kel’s head to the small boy in the chair diagonal from his own. Sunny had retreated into some self imposed shell, his arms folded as he looked down at a rapidly cooling dinner plate. The guest’s eyes flickered between three distinct reactions, a nervous mother, a stern father, an anxious son…_

_Speak. Speak, dammit._

_You can still fix this, you can help._

_Kel blinked several times as he watched Sunny’s tense shoulders suddenly diffuse. The rare times he managed to beat the dark haired child in a video game, that was how he would look. Defeated and resigned._

_The words wouldn’t come out, this wasn’t like him. He was paralyzed by that look, by the judgement from across the room, the uncertainty of it all._

_The wheel-o-fortune spun in his mind, and today it chose something entirely new._

_After that hiccup, the dinner devolved back into the unspoken. Everyone with their heads down. At the end of it all, Kel could only give Sunny a small smile as he was dismissed, a promise that they’d hang out again soon. The door creaked to a close as he stood outside in the night, believing they’d see each other again in a little while, and next time he’d make things right._

_He had really just been a stupid kid, hadn’t he?_

_Kel would admit, maybe he could be perceptive, but it wasn’t enough._

_He couldn’t be there, couldn’t be anything close to decent._

_That was the start of his retreat, and the event that would change everything forever wouldn’t even start until a week later._

_Kel had watched one of his best friends wall himself up, and yet the right words still wouldn’t come out._

_For ages they’d tolerated him in all his excess, the brattiness, the tantrums, the irritability and stupidity, and when had he ever returned the favor?_

_And for four years, that uneasy dance extended to the five that would remain. For four years he had done nothing but watch in utter silence. Kel, the ‘lighten the mood’ dude, the ‘party hats over the eyes’ guy._

_Standing off to the side. Held in a stasis, a purgatory where he waited for himself to make a move, to finally reach out again._

_That ‘FOR SALE’ sign was the final call, the last quarter, and in the face of all that despair, he felt an internal arrow finally land on determination._

* * *

“So...Where do you wanna go now, Sunny?”

Outside of Hobbeez, Kel felt the humid summer air hit him square in the face. He had to admit, going to the hobby store with Sunny of all people felt...surreal. But it was good! The fluttering sound of brand new comics, that familiar rattle of an ancient air conditioner, the vague murmurs of other browsers, it had been a while since Kel had witnessed it, especially with someone else. Through it all, there was a sliver of a creeping doubt, an image in his mind of the old friend turning around and walking straight out of the shop, the sigh of the doorbell signalling his departure. It never happened, though. Through it all Sunny had seemed engaged...even mildly amused. That was a pretty big deal for him. 

It was fun, and the kid must be having a good time, I mean, he’s still standing here, waiting patiently for Kel to decide on the next plan. 

“Guess there’s really not much to do around the suburbs, huh?”

Kel scratched the back of his head as he blurted out the observation, trying to sort through the memory junkyard in his mind, searching for _anything._ Wait! The vision of a swingset…

“Oh, how about the Faraway Park? Yeah, the park! We passed it by on the way here, that sounds fun doesn’t it?”

Skipping on the pale pavement, he bounded forward. It was perfect! Everyone had always loved the park, especially their old hangout spot by the lake. He realized in his excitement he had pushed too far, and Sunny looked wide eyed for a second, standing on his own outside the retailer. Like a lost puppy far from home.

Kel walked back to him and flashed a grin. He had to pause, to remember, he took his place next to Sunny, and waited for the dark haired boy to move forward. As they exited the market, their steps began to align. 

* * *

_Kel bursted forward from the underbrush, his shoes thudding hard against the ground, his steps a blur in the tall grass. Ahead of him, he watched scattered trees fly by. Really, the child in pursuit of him didn’t stand a chance, nobody could beat him in a footrace. It was down to the final moments of this relentless game of tag the group had partaken in. Aubrey was it, but the home base, a wide tree, was getting closer and closer in Kel’s line of sight. The persistent child watched the sky stretch out beyond, laughing to himself as he heard the girl’s steps retreat further and further behind him._

_“Ha! Can’t catch me, Aubrey!” He exclaimed his victory line, almost slamming full force into the approaching oasis. His calloused hand scraped roughly against the bark, staring behind himself triumphantly as he caught his breath._

_As a relentless spring wind caught the forest in a flurry of wavering greenery, he saw the black haired child’s face fall. Her shoulders lowered as she stopped her pointless chase, dragging her feet through the dirt as she looked down, making her way slowly towards Kel with indecision._

_“Hey! Don’t be a sore loser!” The boy exclaimed loud and proud. From around him, several other children bounded over. They had long been out of the ring, and the final battle between the two chronically quarrelsome friends had been the only thing holding their attention. Kel felt pride swell in him as he posed, hands to his hips, completely oblivious to the shift in tone._

_“Hey...it’s okay, Aubrey, I’m sure you’ll get ‘em next time,” Mari’s voice was soothing and light, Kel still had his eyes closed as a dumb smile upturned his face. He heard a shifting sound in the grass, and waited patiently for the allure of his victory to warrant praise._

_“Y-yeah. It’ll be o-okay, Aubrey.”_

_“What Basil said! Kel will be no match for you next time!”_

_The victor’s eyes were still shut, his face upturned to the sky, but he felt his smile fall. A seething anger and confusion beginning within him. What the hell? He had won fair and square!_

_“Hey! What the hell!” Kel opened his eyes, confusion quickly piercing through his cranium, morphing into an ugly, tangible frustration._

_“Kel. Language,” Hero glared daggers at him sternly. Kel’s eyes fluttered open and he reeled at the sight before him, Aubrey was crying huge tears, and soon was full on bawling. She turned her head upwards as the tears fell, Mari was engaging her in a hug, Basil had a careful hand on her shoulder. Hero stood to Mari’s right, eyeing the distraught young girl with concern. Sunny was the only one standing considerably far off, watching the scene unfold with wide eyes. Aubrey just kept on crying...and crying..._

_Why does that always work for her. It’s so annoying._

_“I’m...I’m the one who won…” Kel thought he was angry, but his voice came out dazed, he really couldn’t process what was going on, the wheels in his head turned rapid fire._

_“Ah, we...we know, Kel,” Mari began, always the reassurer, “but Aubrey had a bad day today...so…”_

_“I…” Kel’s voice blurted out, his ears were ringing, the wind screaming soundlessly, “I don’t cry when I lose! It’s not fair!”_

_“Kel,” Hero’s voice was sharp, his brown eyes staring daggers, “now is not the time,” he finished after a while, a contemplative look on his face._

_Seconds, minutes, the young boy couldn’t tell how much time had passed. He sat resolutely on the tree’s base, kicking his shoe into the hard ground, unearthing roots in its wake. Not fair...not fair...slowly his inner monologue petered out. The long haired child refused to look up as the crying stopped. It ended with a halt, as if the girl was trying to physically restrain herself._

_Several beats, and suddenly a shadow fell over the boy. He looked up with a hand held to his forehead to block the glare of a setting sun. A silhouette towered over him, he was taken aback by Aubrey’s stance, she looked fierce, a stark contrast to her appearance from before._

_“Next time, I won’t lose.”_

_Kel’s eyes widened, there hadn’t been a single crack in her tone, her voice boomed out with a fierce resolve. Her mood had done a complete u-turn, see-sawing between states like someone he knew all too well…_

_With a (slightly) more advanced teenage mind to perform hindsight, Kel realized just how much he and Aubrey were alike._

_“Alright,” the young boy’s head snapped up to meet hers, both their faces were tear-stained, but a resolute smile beamed between them, “But if you do lose, no cryin’”_

_“It’s a promise,” the child grasped Aubrey’s open hand as she responded, letting her pull him staggering to his feet._

* * *

It hurt to see her.

It always hurt to see her like this.

More than any sad movie, more than any sob story that could possibly resurface from the depths of Kel’s mind, as much as remembering Mari’s death.

So, whenever he came across her, he couldn’t help but engage. Aubrey had always been so hard to read, more than any other individual, and Kel could barely understand others in general to begin with. 

“Stop messing with Basil! How could you!? We all used to be friends, don’t you remember?” Kel heard the scream escape him, it was all so incomprehensible. The blonde boy cowered timidly in the field, a nervous set of electric blue eyes flickering between Aubrey and the new arrivals with haste. Why him? Basil didn’t have a single evil bone in his body, he was innocent. 

_Just pick on me instead. I’m the one who deserves it._

The buzz of insects was all that could be heard for a moment, Kel felt the heat seep through him, the park wavering in the haze. Four disconnected figures turned their gazes elsewhere, unable to handle the rising tension between them. Kel felt as though he had been stabbed.

_Fix it. This time, I’ll fix it._

“Tell her, Sunny!” He desperately called out, the greenery shifted and dissolved, he was alone. The dark haired boy had retreated back several yards. Kel could feel a stare boring through his back. There was no response.

“...Sunny’s here?” Ahead of him, bright pink hair glinted in the harsh sun, the disgruntled teenager was looking up, a hand to her eyes. Kel felt as though his heart was being held in a vice grip, he half expected her to cry, but this was a completely different character in front of him.

Cold green eyes flashed to the teenager behind him. “Wow, it really is you. It’s been a while, but you haven’t changed a bit.” Her eyes betrayed nothing. She blinked slowly, as if genuinely taken aback for a moment, but a brow twitch signalled something below the icy surface level. 

And then, she continued, reduced to a petty sneer. Lashing out at Sunny, a malice that couldn’t be contained.

Violence was brewing, all Kel wanted to do was run. 

But no, he had to be above it. He stood protectively in front of Sunny as Aubrey whipped out a worn bat. The nails flickered in the glare, leering at the trespassers with unseen eyes. 

For a second, Kel thought he saw something sad in the delinquent’s expression, and then a brawl broke loose. 


	3. With You, Time Stopped

_A young girl found herself in a winding, wooden hallway. It shifted from side to side, unsteady above ground, held up by amorphous branches that knotted and compounded together, sprawling out from holes in the walls, their edges visible from the inside. Around her lay a sanctuary of sorts. Beautiful, vivid plants overgrown through cracks in the worn planks. A garden tucked away safely, growing and growing in an eternal abundance._

_With every step, the barefoot child found the flora sinking away from her, flowers withered, shriveled, and died. In her wake was nothing but dust, a stench of death rising from an intruder’s trail. Bruises ached as they consumed her beneath the skin, an unyielding purple decay that made her head pound._

_The mysticism was quickly disintegrating, wonder disappearing instantaneously, replaced by a creeping horror that just grew worse and worse as the death march refused to cease._

_‘No. No, I don’t want to keep going...Please...Let this end.’_

_Bright green, to yellow, to brown. Over and over the child watched the pattern repeat. Her limbs trembled. She didn’t want to be doing this, she didn’t want to be here. If she wasn’t here, then they would be okay. If she wasn’t here…_

_“I-I’m sorry! Pl-please don’t hurt me...”_

_Someone else…? When did they get here? Black hair flowed behind the child as the unstable structure creaked beneath her feet. Around her, the nonsensical room degraded further and further, mahogany walls fading to ash._

_Out of thin air, a figure materialized. A small, pale child with unkempt blonde hair. The girl soon realized he had been the source of the cry._

_At first, the wanderer was relieved._

_‘Someone else! Thank goodness, someone else is stuck up here!’_

_But then she really looked at him. There was...no expression to be seen. Instead, wavering black marks where facial features should have been met her bewildered stare._

_‘No...How is this possible? I still...I still have a face right?!’_

_She searched and searched for any trace of humanity in the dark streaks, feeling a sob creeping up, choking her from somewhere deep and long forgotten._

_She clutched tightly to her bright dress and tried to step back._

_She couldn’t be here anymore._

_She had to get away, this wasn’t how things should be._

_Instead, a firm grip held her in place, icy hands from somewhere unseen. The child was in suspended animation for a second as black vines wrapped around her and the boy, cutting off all trace of the outside world._

_Someone familiar was in front of her now, the teenager’s long dark hair stretching to the ground, knotting at her feet…_

_“Please...don’t do it,” the new arrival’s voice was a whimper. She eyed the girl sadly while standing to the side, revealing the boy from before cowering in the dirt, his head down, long strands of fair hair shielding his face, shaking hands raised high in a desperate bid to protect himself._

_‘Do what? Please...I don’t understand…’ the wanderer opened her mouth to cry the phrase, but nothing would come out. The girl felt really, truly alone._

_Red. Lots of red._

_Something cold, a worn instrument in her clammy grip._

_The boy, he was gone. The blood...it pooled all around. He lay there as lifeless as the flowers, drained of all his color._

_The girl whipped around as the darkness cleared, the floor of the treehouse quaked painfully beneath her. She faced the same somber figure, who looked down on her with an unflinching sorrow, an unyielding disappointment._

_“Did...? Did you do this?!” The child was finally able to speak, her voice rising to a scream, delirium making her head spin. The teen simply blinked, then shook her head._

_“I would never do something so needlessly cruel. Look…” the other girl’s voice was barely a murmur, she lifted a bony finger slowly, and pointed to the wanderer’s right hand._

_Red. So much red._

_It dripped from the top of a wooden bat held in a steady grip, flowing down to the child’s wrist, falling off in droplets to the void below._

* * *

Aubrey woke with a start.

Immediately, she raised a quivering hand to her mouth, stifling a scream.

Like water, the details of an unpleasant dream fell through her hands. All that remained was a dull throb in her head and the stickiness of an irksome sweat stuck to her clothes. 

“Ugh, dammit…” she held a cool hand to her forehead, trying to process the pestering headache she knew she’d have to fight all day long now. 

Thin, bluish rays sparkled on her creaky hardwood floor. It must be early morning, the weary teen concluded, kicking her pastel duvet forcefully onto the ground as she stood abruptly. She swayed from side to side for a moment, collecting her bearings as she felt her body slowly leave its hypervigilant state. 

A relentless wind made the attic walls groan for a second, before settling with a faint creak. 

The girl made her way over to a small pen. Inside, a white ball of fur scuttled about. Wide, soft eyes turned to look up at the shadow looming overhead. Aubrey sat down carefully next to the enclosure, feeling her aching limbs screaming silently in protest. Her rabbit scratched slightly at her crate, and the teen reached over, lifting her slowly and gently from the pen to the floor. The rabbit eyed the girl curiously for a second before hopping around the room in search of excitement.

“I’m gonna get you some more treats today...don’t worry, I saved up for the good kind,” the owner’s voice was a rasp, hoarse from having just woken. She shook her head as intrusive remembrance threatened to break the mold, instead opting to watch her pet sniff at the corners of their shared space, completely enchanted by something unseen. 

“What’d you find?” Aubrey sighed in amusement, watching the bunny stand on its hind legs for a moment, sniffing the air, before turning back to the pink haired girl sitting squarely on the ground and hopping towards her. 

The pet’s ears twitched as she stared back up at her owner with round, dark orbs. Aubrey cracked open her eyes to meet a concerned gaze. She stopped rubbing her temples for a second and spoke again, “I’m okay, just got a killer headache now…” her lips upturned slightly in a tired smile. The animal climbed into her lap and settled. The teen stroked the bunny’s fur soothingly.

The coziness of it all brought memories back to the girl’s mind unprompted. Before she could stifle it, an unwelcome weakness consumed her. A sob shattered the stoicness she had managed to recollect after waking. Even though there were no people, even though the white ball of fluff in her lap was incapable of anything close to judgement, she still felt a wave of humiliation wash over her as the tears fell.

Round, sincere eyes looked up again, a pink nose twitching with inspection. Aubrey lifted a hand to her face to shield her expression.

“God, I can’t wait to get out of this dump. You and me, we’re gonna go someplace nice. No more attics...” a small laugh escaped her as she uncovered her face, the animal in her lap had her eyes closed and head lowered, seemingly drifting off into a peaceful sleep. Aubrey dropped her voice to a whisper, “...someplace with windows, quiet. Maybe when we get somewhere steady, I’ll stop having these creepy dreams…”

It was wishful thinking, and the delinquent knew it. But as the call of the birds began outdoors, she found herself lost in imagination. Somewhere faraway, somewhere better.

_But, somewhere like that would never accept someone like me._

A leering inner voice sneered as a darkness took over, another sleep cycle grabbed hold, the nagging call drawing the girl back into its twisted depths. 

* * *

_This cozy den, a sanctuary hidden away at the tops of trees, this was a place Aubrey never wanted to leave._

_The child’s world revolved around this home. The earth kept up its rotation, the clouds circled somewhere unseen above, but Aubrey felt herself unflinching, unmoving in the face of it all. Near a warm hearth where time stopped._

_No hesitation. This is where she wanted to be._

_A potted flower swayed in the slight breeze wafting in through the singular exit. The girl watched the delicate petals flutter and then settle. She adjusted the plant in her lap as she sat on the warm floor, feeling her nerves quiet as the wind faded out._

_“Basil...are you sure it’s okay for me to take this?”_

_The blonde haired child sitting next to her turned his head slightly, speaking quietly so not to disturb the younger boy resting against his shoulder, “Yes, of course! I c-can explain how to care for the gladiolus again, if you want me to.”_

_Blue eyes shone softly as they met the girl’s gaze. It was okay, she remembered what she needed to do. But still, something ate away at her, a fear she couldn’t shake. A future vision of her friend’s disappointed...even angry glare...it felt inevitable. She was clumsy, she didn’t think things through as much as she wanted to, she would mess this up somehow._

_“No, it’s alright, I remember…” her voice was barely a whisper. It was just Aubrey, Basil and Sunny up in the treehouse today. Whenever it was just the three of them, a pleasant quiet floated all around, making Aubrey feel as if she were dreaming. It was nice._

_They sat in that stillness for a little while, watching the sunlight dance through the open door. Aubrey felt like a feather drifting down...and down...and_

_She jolted awake, the potted plant in her lap having almost fallen to the side in her half-asleep state. The young girl felt tears prick her eyes._

_‘No. No, I can’t do this.’_

_“Aubrey?” Doting eyes tried to peer at her from the floor, the girl had turned her head upwards to shield her expression. Basil was ever observant, though. The child felt a warm hand grasp hers._

_“I-I’m sorry, Basil! I-I’m gonna…” she sniffled before continuing, “...I’m gonna mess it up…” her words were barely comprehensible as she stuttered. The boy didn’t pull away, he simply held on tighter to her hand as she spoke. It was...reassuring. It felt nice. Still, Aubrey didn’t understand why Basil was okay with listening to some crybaby like her._

_“There, there,” the boy began soothingly, “Everything is okay, see?” Aubrey turned her head down to look at him, he was scooping bits of dirt that had escaped up with his hands, placing the grains diligently back in the pot they had spilled out of. “Plants are pretty resilient, don’t worry!” The child flashed a bright grin and Aubrey felt her fears melt away._

_“It’s...really okay?”_

_“Of course!” Basil began, not a hint of hesitation in his voice. “I-I trust you, Aubrey. That’s not gonna change.”_

_‘I trust you.’_

_“Okay!” Aubrey’s mood flipped, she felt energized again, determined. She shot to her feet in her enthusiasm, clutching the pot with a resolute grin. In her boundless pep, she fretted while realizing she had accidentally woken Sunny from his nap._

_“Let’s go play! How about it?”_

_“...Hi Aubrey.”_

_“O-okay! I-I’m up for it!”_

_In the shelter where time stopped, the children all rose to their feet. Aubrey placed her new flower on the table where it could reach towards the sun before staring down at a shimmering ladder. It was time to go._

_“I’ll be back for you, don’t worry!” She exclaimed the statement aloud at the glittering petals behind her, then began a long descent._

* * *

One swing, then two.

It didn’t mean anything, it was just business. They had challenged _her_ , after all.

Aubrey met their eyes with an icy glare. With all the willpower she could muster, she tried to look through them. Her gaze bore holes.

Third swing, another miss. She was getting messy, her insides twisted together into a tight knot that was threatening to burst. 

Numbness warped and twisted into something unidentifiable. The delinquent felt a smirk crawl up her lips as a studded bat collided against someone’s shoulder. A pale figure reeled back with a cry.

She was acting selfishly, completely absorbed in the need to _finish_ this. To _say_ something the only way she knew how. 

There was just one scathing voice inside of her, and it was screaming that it was time to _settle_ things. 

In the scorching park, with her gang cheering behind her and the startled screams of her opponents keeping her tethered to reality, Aubrey could feel tunnel vision kicking in as she prepared herself for another strike, the world slowing on its axis as she lunged forward with all her strength. 

_They’re just strangers to me._

A bat narrowly missed the side of an orange shirt.

_They’ll never understand me, and I don’t give a damn._

The shirt’s owner yelped as he was shoved backwards.

_Kel. Why does he care so much?_

Disgusting, the delinquent had told herself not to think his name. Her eyes met round dark ones for a moment. So much emotion radiating from a boy completely out of control. That was Kel, always an open book, painfully easy to read. It used to be comforting. Years ago in this same park, when they had played together, he had given her nothing but faith. He radiated pure, honest sincerity. Even now this shone through, even as he refused to admit that everything had changed. Anger began to seethe and boil. A white hot fury that sent the girl’s head into a spin...

_Stop thinking. Stop thinking. Stop-_

A heavy mass collided with her stomach, her breath was thrown from her violently as she reeled backwards. The light danced around Aubrey as she caught herself. Something ugly bubbled to the surface, she looked up for a second, shielding her eyes with one hand, the other reclaiming the grip on her bat.

“Aubrey-”

_Stop talking to me. Stop talking. Stop-_

Pink hair glinted in the glare as the girl ploughed forward. She had to end this soon, before he started talking again. Before he started acting sickly sweet, before he began begging her to remember what they all used to be. _Picnics by the beach, a calm atmosphere, the feeling of warmth and a makeshift home._ The way the boy talked, the way he tried to lay her wounds out in the open. He _really_ thinks she’ll just relent and everything will go back to what it used to be. This _stranger_ really believes she’s still the scared little crybaby from all those years ago.

It made her sick.

It made her hit even harder.

Soon the boy had collapsed to the ground, clutching his shoulder. Winded and defeated, for a moment appearing like Basil, the blonde she had tormented for all these years. For a second, Aubrey thought Kel had finally conceded. 

And yet, he refused to break the stare.

A silent challenge.

In a fleeting vision, the girl saw her hand reach out, pulling a long haired boy up from the base of a tree. 

_Disgusting._

Aubrey readied her bat, she’d wipe that look off his face no matter _what_ it took.

Then suddenly, a flash. And _someone else_ was in front of her.

The shove felt as though it were coming from a light breeze. The girl tipped backwards somewhat, letting her feet carry her back several steps. He had finally acted, huh? No longer standing off in the sidelines. Was that what it took for him to come out of the hole he’d made for himself? His former friends duking it out in broad daylight? What a joke.

_This is all...so stupid. And so funny. It doesn’t feel real._

The girl covered her face as it twisted back into a tight, exasperated grin. Sunny simply watched...and watched...like what he always did. Someone could be crying, someone could be screaming, begging for help...

And all he would do was watch.

 _Disgusting._ Her mind brought the hammer down. Today, Aubrey was going to be judge, jury, and executioner. She readied her bat. One powerful hit, and this sickly looking shut-in would be out for the count. Just one strike, and this would all be over.

That boy in front of her, he was stuck in time. Dark hair peeking out on all sides, unkempt and clumped together by sweat. 

The world turned and turned on its axis, and Sunny stayed firmly in place, oblivious to everything whizzing by. Watching as Aubrey was violently ripped away, sent reeling along with it. Well, not today. Today that kid was going to _move._

Staring back down at him, she watched awestruck as the kid collapsed in on himself like a house of cards. Cowering on the ground with his hands over his ears, a dark shadow shielding his face as his head turned to the grass beneath him. _Just like that? He’s barely started the fight and he’s already had enough?_

Aubrey didn’t buy it. This was some kind of trick.

The girl started forward, clutching the worn instrument in her grip with all the force she could summon. Towering above the teenager, who, unsurprisingly, still looked and acted like a small child after all this time.

She prepared herself, a strong wack to the middle of his back should be enough. She let the fury guide her in a twisted dance as she prepared for the battle’s end, gathering momentum as she lifted her weapon high into the air.

Someone tiny, retreating into himself. She’d make him pay a debt long overdue, and she would feel satisfied in achieving it. It would be perfect, and then she could go somewhere nice. Forget about all of this, shove it all into the darkest crevices of her mind never to be touched again.

It’s perfect. Everything is going to be perfect. That look, timid and afraid. The two of them running away from her, never to be seen again. Everything in its right place. A race she was meant to lose. Nothing. It means nothing, and she will finally be able to _live_ again.

‘ _I-I’m sorry! Pl-please don’t hurt me…’_

A flash in her mind. The vision of a much older, beet red face. _Him_. Tall and towering over her. Aubrey could suddenly see nothing but static, feel nothing but the ringing in her ears.

A beat.

_Sickeningly sweet voices, a picnic by the lake, a chase through the forest, the home up in the trees, the-_

She hesitated. 

Red. So much red. 

It dripped from the hem of Aubrey’s shirt, down her stomach, falling off into the sunbaked grass below. 

In front of her, the cowering dark haired enemy had stood. He faced her with an unwavering stare of resolve, and in his hand, a silver knife glinted red in the summer glare. 

* * *

‘ _A picnic by a lake.’ She tried to picture it, but the image dissolved._

_Aubrey gazed down at the dark floorboards. Her mind was a concoction of muddled voices and sounds. Indistinguishable from one another as they twisted and coiled in her head._

_‘A chase through the forest’. She tried to conjure it, but the memory fell through her hands like water._

_Aubrey could only see Basil’s nervous disposition. The way the blonde wrung his hands together whenever she tried to look at him. The way he kept muttering something incomprehensible, the terrified look in his eyes when she had asked to come over. It was supposed to be simple, it was supposed to feel light and feathery, like a dream. It didn’t feel that way anymore, everything was wrong. He was looking at her now like everyone else did._

_‘The poor girl. That’s the poor girl. I can hear her parents fighting from across the street. Stay away. Stay away. There’s something wrong with her. Her house is crumbling at the seams, her clothes are raggedy and don’t fit quite right. Do you see? That’s someone you shouldn’t go near...that’s…’_

_‘No.’ Aubrey silenced herself sternly. Basil wasn’t like that, Basil was never like that. The child was sure that...everything that happened...must have been really hard on him too. Goodness, she was so selfish. Pitying herself while he must be grieving so much. He’s nervous because of Mari, why was she so blind?_

_‘Stop. Stop thinking.’_

_Basil was still missing. This normally vibrant place, it felt cold and lifeless. The girl felt as though ants were crawling up her limbs. She needed to move, now._

_Aubrey rose and walked slowly to the hall. Basil, he must be in the bathroom still, right? It had been an awfully long time...what if he wasn’t okay?_

_A searing panic began to take hold. The girl raised a fist to the closed door and knocked abruptly._

_‘It’s okay. I can fix things. I’ll just tell him how sorry I am, and he’ll come back. We can get through this together, then everyone can be friends again.’_

_“Basil?” Her voice came out shaky. A pause. No response. She couldn’t let this slide, not when she felt so determined, not when there was still so much she needed to say._

_A second call, and then another. Still nothing. Aubrey felt worry bubble up...and up...and…_

_She opened the door wide, it hadn’t been locked._

_“Basil! Are you alright? Ba-”_

_A tiny, pale figure, cowering at the foot of a sink. The room was covered in a harsh, indigo hue. She could barely make him out, recognizing those glowing, aqua eyes. They were wide in...in…_

_She rushed to his side without hesitation._

_“Basil!? Basil are you-”_

_Suddenly, she found herself lurching backwards as hands wrenched sharply upwards in her direction. The blonde boy was quivering, still low to the ground, as tears tumbled down his cheeks. That look in his eyes…_

_It was anger. Aubrey felt her stomach drop._

_“Wh-wh-what the h-hell are y-you doing?! G-get out!!”_

_The next minute or so was a blur. The intruder stood with haste and bolted out the door, back to that cold bedroom. She collapsed back on the bed and clutched herself tightly with trembling hands._

_She couldn’t be here like this. She needed something good, distracting, anything-_

_The photo album._

_She remembered it and felt the world tilt and distort as she stood, still reeling from the encounter. The girl grabbed the familiar hardcover book. It was cool to the touch, and already she could feel her nerves settling._

_Mari was in here. Aubrey could see her again._

_She opened the precious memento gently._

_‘What.’_

_Black streaks. Like something out of a horror film. Like photos on the wall of some serial killer in some cheesy flick somewhere. Except…_

_This was real, and Mari’s face had been completely blacked out. In every single photograph of her. Aubrey flipped through the pages rapidly as anger began to rise in a slow march._

_Mari, her best friend. Everyone’s best friend._

_‘Basil...he...he did this. Didn’t he…?’_

_A childish voice screamed at her that it wasn’t possible, her head sent into a whirlwind again. The jury was out, suddenly her thoughts were deadly silent._

_Except for one inkling of an idea._

_‘Run. Take it with you. Don’t look back.’_

_And so she did._

* * *

Stained glass shone as sparse sunlight refracted through it.

This place. It was quiet, and the feeling it brought was the closest thing to serenity Aubrey could achieve nowadays. The church in a tucked away corner of town. Despite the semblance of peace it offered, Aubrey always felt a distinct weight on her whenever she entered those heavy doors. Unseen eyes watching, staring down and scoping her out with an acute accuracy. They always remained, even on the days when no one was here, when there was nobody really looking at her at all. 

She closed her eyes and listened to the even tone of the pastor. _Those two_ earlier, at the park, here she felt obliged to forget. Removed from it all, the brawl, their glares, all of her actions up until this point, she found herself actually able to _think_. 

_Mari. I’m sorry._

She said it every time, and by now, the words rolled out naturally. No more crying, no more feeling like a knife was twisting in her gut at the idea that she was really gone. Just a fact, she wanted to address Mari, who was dead, and say that she was sorry.

Mari wouldn’t like who she was now, and Aubrey knew it. But she didn’t know what to say other than sorry, other than acknowledge that everything was twisted and screwed and that things could never be the same again. _Sorry_ , it meant nothing when she was still watching Basil get taunted. _Sorry_ , it meant nothing when Mari’s own brother had just slashed through her with a goddamn knife of all things just a few hours ago. _Sorry_ , she had said the day before in this same location, the day before she watched her former friends cower before her in fear with a horrible, sadistic smile on her face. 

But Mari was gone, she could never hear her again. She could never pause in that contemplative pose she always had that Aubrey was slowly forgetting. Never turn the words over in a mind that no longer existed. 

If Mari was nothing, then what does any of this even mean.

Wearily, the teenager reminded herself that she was dead. That these efforts were completely futile. She let out a long sigh, when…

“Aubrey...Psst...Aubrey!”

And her migraine had just started to fade. You could _not_ be fucking serious.

The delinquent whipped around to stare behind her pew in shock. That _nausea inducing_ voice. She hated how distinct and recognizable it was. Her mouth was agape in bewilderment for a moment, why the hell-

“What the-? W-what the hell are you guys doing here!?”

“We want you to give back Basil’s photo album!”

That glare, the stubbornness in his crinkled expression. Kel was _really really_ pushing her today. Not like careening off a cliff, that would be too light of a description, she felt more like she was on a spaceship hurtling towards Earth. With fire all around. Yeah, that kind.

“You’re still on about that? That’s none of your business.”

“Really? None of my business? We all used to be friends, but now, this is none of my business?”

This kid, always so damn _entitled._ Aubrey refrained from raising a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose. Opting to meet the dark eyes piercing through her with her own resolve, “Yeah, Kel...Exactly. We _used_ to be friends…” she spoke slowly, hoping those rusty gears in the boy’s head would finally start turning for once.

The girl expected him to counter again, but instead he just averted his gaze downwards, appearing crestfallen. For a moment, Aubrey felt that weakness from earlier clawing its way back up to the surface. She simply eyed him warily as he finally spoke up again.

“You know, Mari would be really sad to hear that,” he wasn’t meeting her eyes. This was...unlike him. Aubrey was taken aback for a moment, and reminded of somewhere haunting and blue. He had...changed, too. Hadn’t he?

_No, don’t you start with that pitying nonsense. He barges into your life and yells at you like everything is your fault, while all he did for years was stand off to the side._

“Heh,” Aubrey begins with a scoff, “Really? You want to bring Mari into this?”

She closes her eyes again for a beat, trying to return to that soft, quiet place where no one else could go. She feels her voice break the mold again with a tangible coolness, “Who cares what Mari thinks? Mari’s dead.”

“Aubrey, seriously!? What’s wrong with you?”

_Wrong with me!?_

“I get that you have new friends now, but you can’t just forget your old friends like that!” He finished the comment with a frustrated huff. Aubrey’s brow twitched as she stared him down. She was _so so_ tired. This was all so _incomprehensibly_ tiring.

“My old friends?” Her gaze bore holes for a moment, she ripped her eyes off of the kids behind her and stared down at the floor for a moment, collecting herself before continuing coldly, “My old friends weren’t there for me when I needed them.” Aubrey finished the statement with a light shrug, an objective fact, that’s all it had meant to be. Or it was, but uttering the statement out loud made Aubrey feel like teeth were gnashing at her from the inside. The longer the words hung in the air, the smaller the delinquent felt.

“So that’s what it’s all about…” Kel sounded oddly skittish after breaking the heavy silence. He took a breath, and Aubrey felt practically mite sized under his pity, “When Mari...passed on…” He choked on the word, as if the acknowledgement was still a punch in the gut after all these years, “...We were all dealing with our own stuff. We were kids. It was hard!”

Smaller and smaller, Aubrey felt a fury rise to the surface. Soon she would disappear into nothing, she would _not_ allow that to happen.

“You think it’s all so simple,” her eyes were shut again as she tried to dispel just how _intense_ all her surroundings felt right now, “You’ve always been simple, Kel.”

“So what if I am? I’d rather be simple than be like you! How could you do that to Basil? You know how important his photo album is to him!”

“It’s important to all of us…”

“That doesn’t mean you can just steal it!”

Blinding, red hot fury. This was all so _insane_. An image of their conversation unleashed a rage deep inside her gut. Sunny and Kel, all doting on a blonde who was doing nothing but _lying_ to them. Acting like a damsel in distress, like she was just some irredeemable villain in all of this.

“Is that what Basil told you!?” Aubrey’s tone curled into a snarl, “I’m the one keeping it safe.”

“What are you talking about?” Kel started again, always on her heels, never allowing a beat, a single moment of _rest_. That pity had dissolved, replaced with his familiar brand of blind, oblivious determination, “That photo album belongs to Basil and I’m not leaving until you agree to give it back!”

Aubrey whipped around in that uncomfortable wooden seat, grumbling for a minute, before interjecting, “When Mari died, you moved on so fast,” she looked around for a moment, just wanting them to _listen_ for once, hoping her words would get through, “You know why I come here every week? Even after all this time, I’m still trying to find some peace…”

_Impossible. These strangers, they’ll never listen._

“...But it doesn’t look like that’s happening today.”

Several more seething lines followed.

_“You’re still the same person!”_

What a joke.

Couldn’t they see how twisted everything was? The darkness coiling around them all? Strangling this entire town? Did they blink and miss it? All those comments about the kind of girl Aubrey was doomed to turn into? Still, they tried so hard. That bonehead, and the one who watched and said nothing. 

_“I’m sorry, okay?”_

Insincere. Completely devoid of honesty from someone who was a _terrible_ liar.

“No, I won’t accept this.”

Aubrey stood slowly in an act of final dismissal. This was over. It was over for _good._

* * *

The world was spinning, tilting on its axis.

Whispers all around, drilling holes into Aubrey’s skull, feeding the self loathing its daily meal.

She was disappearing, this was it. She was becoming nothing.

None of it mattered, none of it mattered and she would beat them with her trusty bat until she felt good again. She’d block out all the white noise and give everyone the _show_ they kept begging for. Yeah, they’d never admit church was boring for them, they’d never admit it’s just an act so they could appear respectable and classy. Their resentment hit her in a barrage from all sides, the people around gawking at her like some caged animal in a zoo. 

_“You two better come at me quick...OR I’LL COME AT YOU FIRST!!”_

She had hardly recognized that shrill vulnerability in her voice, tears threatening to consume her. For a second she couldn’t tell if she was actually going to fight or if she was instead going to break down into a crying fit in the middle of the sermon like some pathetic child. 

She’d win. She would win and she would feel good.

One swing, and then another.

Colliding with a familiar shoulder, barreling a trespasser backwards into the red carpet.

Sunny, well, he had casted his judgement. That scar she was going to have on her forever was enough to show for it. He volleyed a punch, she ducked and swung into him with all her might, sending him staggering backwards and clutching his gut.

_Still, not a single drop of anger in his demeanor._

Kel let out a strangled cry as he launched a ball forward, missing by an inch, Aubrey prepared another strike in retaliation.

Then, dark hair blurring in front of her as Sunny raised his hands out protectively.

This wasn't fun.

This wasn’t fun at all.

* * *

_It’s nothing._

Cast it aside.

_It’s nothing._

Move forward, it's all she could think to do.

_It’s nothing._

When they don’t come back, when they never come back.

_It’s nothing._

As they fought her with all they had, as they protected her from hurting the person that used to trust her dearly.

_I don’t know anymore…_

As she remembered a promise.

_I don’t know anymore…_

As she recalled a floating feeling.

_I don’t-_

Weak, crumpled to pieces on the floor, Aubrey watched a dark stare bear down on her. In a flash, all of the ice melted. She devolved into a weeping mess, the dam collapsing with a violent snap. She wished she knew, anymore. She wished she knew how Mari felt. She wished she knew why she chose to die. She wished she hadn’t decided to ruin her life on a whim, to torment the boy who used to scoop soil with his bare hands and listen to her stories and who never called her names. She wished she knew why she tried to bury their memories deep down, why she couldn’t just move on like someone _normal,_ like someone _well adjusted._ Like someone they could be _proud_ of.

Aubrey stands, tears still pricking at her eyes as she trembled under leers, under mockery that turned her insides out. 

_It meant everything._

As she remembered a picnic by the lake.

_It meant everything._

As she remembered an exhilarating chase through the forest.

_It meant everything._

That place up in the trees still lived in her mind. Warped, twisted, but alive.

_It meant everything._

As she stood at Mari’s funeral, and begged for this all to be some kind of sick joke, as she cried that she’d give everything just to see her happy and okay one more time.

_It meant everything._

As she spent long, excruciating months all alone. As she _missed_ them. As she felt _angry_ and _sad_ and all those horrible things no child should ever have to endure.

_It meant everything._

As they cut through her, as they tried to talk her down from the palace she had walled herself up inside. _Stupid_ , _simple_ , but so painstakingly _genuine_. 

It was all so important, so blinding and searing and devastating. And under the gaze of those two, the only figures eyeing the delinquent with any semblance of _sympathy_ , she found herself unable to take it anymore. Even just standing here, they were haunting, sad and loving all at the same time. All at once, and in an instant Aubrey realized just how screwed she really was.

A scared little girl staggered to her feet, running from someplace bad, trying to get anywhere good. Knowing she couldn’t forget, knowing she _shouldn’t_ forget.

Those heavy doors slammed shut, and then she was gone. 

* * *

_A young girl looked down at a singular, wooden hallway._

_A few short steps, and she would be at her destination._

_She watched flowers wilt in her passing, she watched leaves coil and fall._

_Seasons would do that, she concluded._

_Her hand brushed the wooden wall, she felt the decay, pulp rotting against her fingertips._

_She was going to need a new home soon, she concluded._

_At the end of it all, in a sunlit clearing, two figures watched her approach, their faces curving up in natural smiles. The light casting pale shadows across them, the girl could see they were clinging to two flowerpots._

_“Aubrey! There you are!”_

_“...Hi Aubrey.”_

_Aubrey watched them smile warmly, the boys turning around and beginning their walk down the infinite chasm. The child knew she’d never catch up, she remembered dreams prior, they would always outpace her. But strangely enough, she found herself at ease._

_“Aubrey.”_

_She turned around. There was someone new._

_A blonde spoke as a breeze caught him, sending his hair temporarily in front of his face. For a moment, Aubrey didn’t know what to expect, but as the wind settled, she simply saw two calm eyes meeting hers._

_“You almost forgot it.”_

_A smooth vessel was suddenly in her palms, out of it, pale petals shone brilliantly. They fluttered in the slight draft, and for a second, she feared they would blow away. But after that start, they settled._

_The young child lifted her gaze, aiming to thank the boy who had returned this to her, but he had vanished. She let out a sigh._

_“It’s time to go, isn’t it,” she looked up for a moment at the shifting ceiling, and let tears bubble to the surface._

_An offering in her hands, she let out a slow exhale and time marched on once more._

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This fic of mine will be multi-chapter, and swap perspective in each one between everyone in the main cast (except Mari). Hope you all enjoy it!


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